Alien Abduction
by jamelia116
Summary: A coda to "Workforce I & II." The crew returned to Voyager and continued their journey to Earth. But what about those thousands of others who had their memories stolen? What happened to them? What about Jaffen? J/C, Jaffen, Umali, OC - Canon compliant - General audiences.


When the rumors first started flying around, I laughed.

Kidnappers stealing people out of passing space ships to turn them into slave labor? Ridiculous, I thought.

It sounded like a reversal of the hoary old plot from one of those stories. You know, the ones from pre-spaceflight days? Little green men capture innocent people, bring them up to their flying saucer ships, and submit them to unspeakable experiments before returning them to their home planet's surface. They're usually whole in body (more or less) but they suffer from odd dreams of being tortured under ultra-bright lights. Some swore they had evidence and pointed to unexplainable scars on their bodies. Missing organs, and such. I've read a few, and they're fun, even if they are so unspeakably old-fashioned nowadays.

Frankly, all the green aliens I've ever met were really tall, big bruisers, but the nicest people you're ever likely to encounter. I can't think any of them would engage in that sort of crackpot behavior.

Of course, we travel between star systems ourselves now. If you want to find out about an alien race, you can usually travel to their planet to do your research. Or you can look for them hanging out in a bar like Umali's and start talking one up. Once they've had a few drinks in them, they'll spill the most amazing things to you, especially if you're buying.

I'm one of those "aliens," actually. I came to Quarra from Daressa to find work at the power plant a few annual rotations ago. The economy of my home planet has been in shambles for a very long time. A string of pointless wars exhausted the finances of my planet, not to mention our environment. Even after the Unified Government of Daressa was formed ten annual rotations ago, the political infighting kept flaring up. I'd had enough. I'd heard of Quarra, so I came here to see if what I'd heard was true. There _was_ a labor shortage, and they were hiring people from all over the sector. Good money here, too.

The stories were true - about the jobs on Quarra, I mean. I still had major doubts about those old "I was stolen by an alien and turned into his love slave" tales. I'd gone to school on Daressa for power plant systems design, but when I graduated, I couldn't find any place which would hire me. There were so few job openings, and so many people were out of work, the plant operators could afford to be choosy. They all wanted tons of experience, which I didn't yet have. But on Quarra, it was different. I was eminently qualified; I knew my stuff; and I was hired as soon as I touched down and applied for work.

Things had been going along so well for me since I came here, I didn't even want to think about these rumors when I started hearing them. Pointless gossip, I assumed.

Then I noticed that our new efficiency monitor Annika Hansen had disappeared, along with a whole bunch of people who'd come to work at the plant only a few eight/days ago. Kathryn, Sue, Joe, Tal, Rollins, Mulcahy. Even that weird pointed-eared guy Tuvok was gone, although I'd heard he'd gone loopy and had to be hospitalized for mental problems.

Tom, the really nice bartender at Umali's place, he was gone, too. It was very disturbing.

Umali was the one who clued me in. The rumors were true. Tom was one of the people who'd been abducted from a spaceship passing near Quarra. When he first arrived, he was hired at the plant; but he'd only worked there for a day or so before he was fired for arguing with the plant supervisor, Jorin. Umali gave him a job because she needed help, of course, but it didn't hurt he was a very easy male to look at. She said he was a very creative bartender, even if she did have to dock him for free drinks he gave out sometimes to pretty girls. He tried to explain it away as a "marketing ploy." She thought he was a big flirt - but that's good for business at a bar and grill.

He didn't need to give out drinks to get my attention. Those eyes! I'd never seen eyes quite that color before that last group of workers came in. Most of them were humans from a place called Earth, which must be really far away. No one had ever heard of that planet before they showed up.

Joe Carey, one of these humans, told me Earth was so polluted, he couldn't stand to live there anymore. When he heard about the jobs on Quarra, he came here, just like I did, and was happy to find out they'd hire him immediately. The plant manager even found him company housing right down the street.

Joe was a really nice guy.

When Umali told me all the humans really had been abducted, along with some people from other planets like Tal Celes, the Bajoran in my unit, I told her there must be some mistake. Joe told me about the conditions on Earth. Why would he lie? He didn't seem like the type to make up a story like that if it wasn't true.

Umali said, "He wasn't lying, not really. All of them had their memories wiped by a Dr. Kadan. Did you ever meet him? He worked at the mental treatment center as their 'expert' in treating Dysphoria Syndrome. It was a rare disease until recently, but there's been an epidemic lately. I heard the power plant supervisor and this Kadan were in collusion with a group of space pirates. They'd attack ships and bring their crews to Kadan to be 'treated.' The pirates got the ships and any cargo as payment. The power plants on the planet got the workers. It was a sweet deal for them all until they stole the Starfleet people. A few of them were off the ship on a trading mission when the pirates attacked, so they missed them when they stole the rest of the crew. Their mates wouldn't go on home to Earth without them. Maybe I should say they couldn't leave without them, because _Voyager_ is a pretty big ship. That's what Inspector Yerid told me when he came to tell me why Tom wasn't coming back to work for me. He was their chief helmsman, can you believe it? And I had him tending bar."

I didn't stay at the bar that evening after my talk with Umali. I was really upset about what I'd just heard.

What about me? If all of them had their memories tampered with, had my mind been messed with, too? I met Dr. Kadan, right after I arrived on Quarra. He'd treated me for some kind of illness, but he never told me my diagnosis. Was I treated for this Dysphoria Syndrome, too?

I refused to think about it much for the next few days. With all those newly-hired workers suddenly missing, along with a bunch of old-timers who left right at that time, too, we were really short-handed at the plant. I had to work double shifts for a couple of days until the new plant supervisor, Jaffen, had a chance to redo our schedules to make things less chaotic. He set a rotating schedule. We now work seven days in a row and then get two and a half days off when we change to the new shift, but we aren't stretched so thin we can't complete our tasks anymore. He's adjusted our pay to account for the extra hours, too, which is nice. I have a few more credits to spend, if I want to eat out at Umali's more often.

Of course, that meant I had more time to think about what had just happened. One evening, a couple of eight/days after the rumors were proven true, I stayed until closing at Umali's. My shift was changing because of the rotation, and I wasn't going in to work at the plant until evening on the following day. It was early in the eight/day, too, so the crowd cleared out early.

I was sitting up at the bar when Umali started to clean up. I asked her how she was doing, since she no longer had Tom's help.

"I'll get by. I always do. Tom usually volunteered to stay longer than his shift to help me clean up after closing. I was able to get home earlier when he was around. I've got an advertisement out for another bartender. I've interviewed a few applicants, but none of them have been a good fit for me so far. And none are as nice to look at as Tom was! I do miss him."

I told her I missed him, too. I don't know if she was hinting, but since I didn't have anything much to go home for except sleep (which I'd had plenty of earlier in the day), I offered to clean up a few tables for her. She thanked me and promised to pay me a little "under the table" to compensate me for my time.

Once the tables were all cleared and wiped down, I sat back down at the bar. Umali paid me the credits she promised me, which was nice, if unnecessary. She also gave me a free glass of my favorite Daressan ale, which, I must admit, I appreciated more than the extra credits. For a bit, while she placed a batch of dishes in the washer, I sat there and nursed my drink.

Maybe it was the subdued setting. I was awash with memories of other times I'd sat here with coworkers on quiet evenings, chatting idly at first, but getting into deeper waters as the night wore on. There's something about the late night hours, just before curfew, that brings odd thoughts and desires to the surface.

Most of the time, I'm satisfied with my life. I've got a good job I really like. I'm paid enough credits to save something every payday and still have enough to buy whatever I need, and pretty much whatever I want, too. The weather on Quarra is really pleasant most of the annual rotation, especially compared to what it was like on Daressa. I spend my spare time at the beach or in the Harunda mountains, whenever I have a chance to take a vacation. In fact, just about the only thing I _don't_ have is the number of days off from work that I'd like. With the worker shortage, that's not going to change very soon, I'm afraid.

There are times, though, especially on quiet nights like this, when I ruminate on things I usually try to avoid thinking about. Even before all of those rumors started, I often felt something was missing from my life. I knew I wanted a life partner and a family someday, but it all seemed so far off in the future. Who has time to date when you're always working, you know what I mean? That's actually one reason I kept going back to Umali's a few times every eight/day. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking maybe I'd meet someone one evening, someone I could really hit it off with. There were even times I thought I'd had that once, but lost it somehow.

While sitting at the bar, I remembered I'd confided this to Sue Nicoletti, the last night we were here, just before the rumors started. She told me she often felt that way, too. It was another reason, besides the pollution and all, that made her leave Earth to look for another place to settle, to maybe find that special someone to share everything with.

"Is something wrong, Seemai?" Umali asked me, with a serious look on her face.

I hadn't realized I'd said anything aloud. Before I had the chance to answer her, a knock sounded at the door. Umali shouted out we were closed, but the knocking didn't stop.

"I'd better get that," she said. "It could be Inspector Yerid. He told me he'd keep me posted about what's happening with Kadan and Supervisor Jorin."

When she opened the door, it wasn't the inspector. It was my boss Jaffen, the new plant supervisor. She asked him what she could do for him, and he replied, "You've already done it, I see. I was looking for Seemai. I was told she came here a lot on her off hours. Can I speak with her?"

Umali could hardly say no to that. While they walked towards me, she asked him what he'd like from the bar. Just then I got that prickly sensation you get sometimes when you know something big is going to happen, you know the one I mean? Jaffen's face held the expression that screamed out to me, 'I've got big news for you. I hope you aren't going to hate me for it.'

I waited for him to sit down and take the first sip of his drink before I said, "Okay, Supervisor. Spill."

He shook his head, smiling rather sheepishly. "Call me Jaffen, Seemai. I've got something big to tell you." When I didn't say anything more, only nodded slightly, he went on, "We've been going over the records of everyone who's been hired at the plant over the past few annual rotations. Your name came up as one of the workers sent to us by Dr. Kadan."

That prickly feeling turned into a churning of both my stomachs. I breathed in deeply, then said, "Are you saying I'm one of the workers who were stolen and had their memories wiped away?"

He looked me straight in the eyes and said, "It looks that way."

"But I remember coming here from Daressa. I had to come. The only work I could get there was waiting on tables."

And then I started to laugh, with Umali joining in with me. Jaffen looked at both of us like we needed to go to that mental treatment center now, until we told him what I'd done for Umali before he got here. He laughed with both of us after our explanation, but it wasn't a happy laugh. There was a sadness in his eyes that brought me up short. It was like what happens when you throw a glass of water in someone's face to stop them from slipping into hysteria.

And the one who was about to go hysterical was me.

I remembered then about Kathryn, whom he'd moved in with just before the whole thing about the abductions came to light. He'd seemed so very happy with her. She'd seemed happy with him, too. I wasn't wrong about the sadness in his eyes, because she was another of those humans who'd left Quarra. I was afraid, then, to ask him about her, or about the Starfleet crew in general.

I wasn't afraid to ask him about me, though. "So, Jaffen, why do you think I'm one of the abductees?"

"Records show you were one of sixty workers hired on the same day. That's the pattern which tipped off Annika, our efficiency consultant, that the story Amal Kotay was telling us might be true. So we checked on your history with the Daressan authorities. You boarded a ship bound for Quarra which was reported stolen by the shipping line. Your name was on the passenger manifest. When your family on Daressa never heard from you again, they asked the authorities to investigate. The Quarren government told the consulate the remains of your ship were found drifting in a nearby nebula. You were among the missing, and you were presumed to be dead."

The prickling sensation went away. I went numb. And then it sunk in. He'd said my family had been looking for me. I didn't have any family on Daressa. At least, I didn't remember having anyone back there. They'd all died. Like I was supposed to have died.

Suddenly my whole body was suffused with an anger I'd never felt before. Or maybe I had, but the memory of it had been wiped away, like so much of my past. I no longer saw Jaffen or Umali in front of me. Instead, my eyes were seared by a roaring flame, burning away barriers I hadn't known were there. Those fires burst through a door, a door I never saw, into a room where all my most precious memories were kept. And I remembered.

I remembered my family, my mother, my father, my grandparents and brothers. I remembered how loved I was. There was no hint of grief. None of them were dead. They were all still there on Daressa, unless they'd died in the three annual rotations I'd been away.

"Briley. My husband. And Janday, my son. No wonder I kept feeling like I'd lost something. I did! I did lose something! I left them on Daressa to find work, and then I was going to send for them! Gods, they thought I was dead! What's happened to them? What's happened to them all? I have to go to them!"

I said this, I know now, only because Umali told me, after I'd calmed down. At the time, all I knew was a terrible explosion of feelings released in a billowing conflagration of remorse, anger, and paralyzing fear. I needed to discover what happened to them, but I was afraid I'd find myself in the middle of an epic tragedy when I finally did know.

Once the searing anger receded enough for me to see anything in my surroundings, I realized I was sitting on a bar stool, with Jaffen holding tightly to my hands, while Umali wailed incoherently in her native tongue.

I was panting like I'd run for a long, long way up my favorite Harunda mountain trail, but, just as they did when I went running, my thoughts became more coherent and my senses cleared. Umali brought me water to drink. That was much better than gulping down the rest of my ale for many reasons, not the least of which was that the good ale would only have been wasted. I wouldn't have been able to taste it just then. I needed the cold, bracing flush of water on my tongue before I could speak intelligently to the two of them.

When I finally looked up into Jaffen's eyes, I saw only sympathy in them. "It's all right, Seemai. They're okay. We've let them know where you are. They were so relieved. Your husband never believed you were dead. He wanted the authorities to keep looking for you. They thought he was crazy, but now they know he wasn't."

"I have to talk to them. Let them know I'm okay."

"Don't worry. They already know. You'll see them again very soon."

=/\=

The next few eight/days seemed never to end. There were all sorts of arrangements to be made, but Jaffen helped me make them. I was just one of thousands of people taken from passing ships, whose minds had been wiped and who were forced to work on Quarra, especially in power plants. The work shortage on this planet extends to all fields, really, but because of the changeover to the tylium system of energy production, after a major industrial accident twenty annual rotations ago decimated the employees on the job back then, workers skilled in energy production techniques are in extremely short supply. Kidnapping aliens was a disgusting way to obtain the workers needed. I told Jaffen he could probably fill most of his openings just by advertising openly on Daressa. He said he'd look into doing just that.

Slave labor, no. We're really very well paid for our services. Without our memories, however, we aren't whole. We can't make the choice to leave if we want to go make a life somewhere else. After I received treatment to reverse the memory tampering, I understood it _was_ slavery of a sort, shackling us to this place because we thought we had nowhere else to go. The ironic thing is, I really did want to come to Quarra, and, as it turned out, so did most of the Daressans on the ship who traveled with me. The pirates didn't need to steal us. We were already coming here to work. Kadan didn't need to tamper with our memories, either. Inspector Yerid thinks the reason our minds were wiped was to prevent any of us from revealing Kadan's criminal activities to the authorities, since the pirates had blundered by attacking our vessel.

When I told Umali my family was coming here to live with me, she was very grateful I was staying. She said she was getting a little lonely, with so many of the workers going back to their home planets. Umali had emigrated to Quarra with her parents a decade ago. Her family had come to find a better life than they could have obtained on their home planet.

Not every worker's story would end as happily as mine. Evgenda Onial worked in my department at the plant. When her memories were restored, thanks to the _Voyager_ Doctor's techniques, she recalled she'd been traveling back to the home of her family's matriarch to receive the matriarch's deathbed blessing for a long life, a Lerinian tradition. Evenda started working at the plant one whole annual rotation ago. Her matriarch passed away a few eight/days after Evgenda's ship would have arrived on Lerin. Evgenda became so despondent, she committed suicide by jumping off the top level of the power plant.

I was saddened by Evgenda's loss and furious at Jaffen's predecessor, Supervisor Jorin, and Kadan. Inspector Yerid believes their punishment will be announced soon. He expects they'll end up having their own memories wiped away before being sent to a penal colony on Quarra's largest moon for a life sentence. I say they shouldn't have their minds wiped. They should be tortured by the memories of their misdeeds while they spend their lives in drudgery, mining tylium for our power plants. Inspector Yerid told me to send a letter to the judiciary to let them know what I think. He claims it would be more powerful coming from one of their victims. Maybe I will.

=/\=

Yesterday, when my husband and son's ship was due in from Daressa, Jaffen was at the space port, too. He was seeing off the last of the workers who were on their way back to their homes on other planets. After he'd seen them all board their shuttle and had watched it ascend to their starship, he came to sit with me in the waiting area until my family arrived.

During the time he helped me move to a bigger apartment accommodation for my family, assisting me with their travel arrangements and Quarren Alien Worker Permits, I'd avoided asking him about Kathryn. I realized that for the next eight/days, I'd be very busy reacquainting myself with my family, and vice versa. If I didn't ask him about her then, I probably never would. I simply asked him how he was doing, now that _Voyager_ had gone on its way back to Earth. If he wanted to talk about her, that would give him the opening to do so.

You know that faraway look people get in their eyes? The one they get when they aren't quite with you, even though they're standing right next to you? I saw it on his face then. "I'm okay. I'll get by. I miss her very much, but she was the captain of _Voyager_. There's no way she'd leave her crew to go on to Earth without her and stay here with me. I think I already suspected it when she asked me to come up and tour her ship, but I went up anyway to see her one more time. Do you remember Amal Kotay? No, I guess you wouldn't have met him. He wasn't around for very long. He took me around _Voyager_. Chakotay is her second in command. He's human, too. He didn't look it when he was down here because he'd been in disguise. The Quarren ambassador had already spoken to Chakotay, and he was afraid he'd be recognized if he applied for work at the plant as himself."

He sighed then, and added, "She told me I could come to Earth with them, if I wanted to. But she's the captain, and there are 'protocols' of some sort she has to follow. The captain isn't allowed to be in a romantic relationship, apparently. We couldn't be together anymore. It must be very lonely for her on that ship without anyone to share things with. But I'd be even more lonely if I went with her but couldn't touch her. It would be even worse to be there, under those restrictions, than it is for me to be here without her. Like it must be for Amal Kotay - I mean, for Chakotay. I could see how it was with him when he took me on the tour. He loves her just as much as I do, but it's just as hopeless for him, even though he's always right there standing next to her. Has been, for over six of their annual rotations. It must be like living in a firepit."

I was more than a little sorry I'd asked him, after he'd said that. I thought it would be best to change the subject. Since we were sitting in the spaceport terminal, it seemed natural for me to ask, "You're still here on Quarra. Don't you want to go back to your home planet?"

"No, I'm like you. I really _did_ come here from Norvala to seek a better life. I guess I'll have that now. I'd be considered a real success back home, now that I'm the plant supervisor. I was lucky I was offered the position right then." He sighed so deeply, I thought he might not say anything more, but after a prolonged pause, he added, "Having the new job made it a little easier seeing her go back to her real life. They still have half the galaxy to travel to get back to Earth. Many of the humans aren't really from Earth, either. They've settled many planets in what they call the Alpha Quadrant, but it didn't matter where they came from. Kadan planted the memory of Earth as their home planet in all their minds. Kathryn said it's _NOT_ polluted or hopelessly overpopulated, either. She said it's a lovely place to live. That was another false memory planted in all their minds. "

"Maybe you could take a vacation there someday?" It was an unbelievably ridiculous thing for me to say, but it was the only thing that came to mind at that moment.

"I would if I could get there and back again in the number of vacation days I have! She expects it will take them thirty or more annual rotations to get there!" Fortunately, he laughed then, which allowed me to laugh along with him.

"I'm glad Daressa isn't that far away from here. And I'm very happy my husband never 'felt' I was really dead. Do you think you can find him a job? He's worked as a computer technician, but that's a very poorly paid position on Daressa."

"If he's qualified in our systems, I'd be happy to hire him. One more position filled, hundreds more to go. I'll help you find child care and a school for your son, too. Anything - within reason - to keep my workers happy."

I would have gladly started talking about schools and such right then and there, but that's when we saw my family's shuttle circling the landing field. In only a few ticks, I saw my husband and son coming out of the door, and I started to cry. "He's gotten so big, my baby! He was barely half my height when I left, and now his head is up to Briley's shoulder." And then I cried even harder when I saw who was with them. "Jaffen, it's my mother. She's come, too. She's an electrical engineer. Can you hire her, too?"

"Worry about that tomorrow," he said smiling at me. "Go to them."

I didn't even say good-bye to Jaffen as I rushed out of the terminal to the baggage and reception area. I was a puddle of tears already, but when I realized my son Janday remembered me, even though I'd been gone for almost half of his childhood, I really lost it. I was so glad I wouldn't really be a stranger, but there's so much we have to catch up on. All of us do. I missed so much of his life, all because of the evil people do to others. And my mother looked so much older than the last time I'd seen her. Briley's own eyes were teary as he gave me such a fierce hug, I wasn't sure I'd be able to breathe when he finally let me go.

I don't know how long it took for us to calm down and do what we had to do to leave the spaceport. They only had a couple of bags each, because that was all they'd been permitted to bring with them on the space ship; but Briley told me we had several more boxes of special mementos and image collections, packed in shipping containers, which would arrive sometime in the next few eight/days.

Finally, we were ready to leave, to begin living our lives together on Quarra. As we started to go, I looked up at the window where I'd waited with Jaffen. I was certain he would have already left the port, but he was still standing there, all by himself. His face was raised to the sky. He looked so lost and alone standing there. I was glad I couldn't ask him what he was thinking about just then. I was pretty sure I already knew.

Now, whenever I think about alien abductions, I remember Jaffen. Some aliens really do abduct body parts. Kathryn took Jaffen's heart away when she journeyed on towards Earth.

I'd like to think he'll get it back someday, but somehow, I doubt it.

=/\=

End

=/\=

I remember a LOT of grumbling by the J/C devotees when the two-part "Workforce" episodes came out. Why couldn't have Janeway and Chakotay both been stolen away, so they wouldn't know who they were and could fall in love? I've always enjoyed J/C together, but I liked this one.

Sixteen plus years on, I still think it was a fascinating pair of episodes. Of course, my favorite pairing has always been Paris and Torres, who were well-served in "Workforce." I got to thinking (just today!) about the others who had to go on after the _Voyager_ crew left, either returning to their old lives on their home planets or staying on Quarra, but with their memories restored. So, here's the story of one of those folks.

Paramount still owns all. I know it. You know it. I'm just adding a bit of missing scenery from an episode that needed just a little bit more. If you know what I mean.

July, 2017


End file.
